The Nightingale
by AriasSeth56
Summary: Dhar'Sii has returned from fighting Miraak only to find that the Aldmeri Dominion has invaded his home and killed his wife. Only that, but Hemaeus Mora, the Daedric Prince of knowledge has sent him to a new world that he cannot return from. Now, he must protect those who have taken him in and make a way in his new life. First fanfic so please give me feedback.
1. The Return

The Nightingale

By Arias Seth

Chapter One: The Return

It has been six months since I came to Solstheim to battle Miraak, the previous Dragonborn. This whole time I had spent since defeating Miraak, had been spent helping the inhabitants of Solstheim make their island safe. The campaign against the Ashspawn had been the hardest, though it was the quickest, while the campaign against the Reavers had been long and drawn out. Now, however, the Dunmer and the Skaal and a sufficient defense force that I could return home to my wife and kids.

"Dragonborn, we are ready to depart when you are." The captain of the boat said. I looked at him and nodded my head.

"Let us go captain." I said, "We have families waiting and friends to drink with." I added, pulling my reptilian lips back in a playful snarl.

The captain nodded, smiling and ordered his men to get the longboat moving. I walked up to the bow of the boat and looked in the direction of Skyrim and home.

"I'm coming home Serana." I said as the boat left port.

"It appears that someone from the Legion is out to greet us, sir." The captain said pointing. I looked out to where he was pointing and gave a small laugh as I recognized the figure that was standing there.

"Ho Hadvar. What news?!" I called out.

Hadvar waited until the ship had come up beside him, when he climbed in and clasped my arm.

"It's mighty good to see you lad." He said cheerily, though I did detect a sense of sadness in his tone.

"What is it Hadvar?" I asked of him.

"The Thalmor, they have burned down your house and captured your wife, though your steward was able to save your children." He told me in a sorrowful tone. "She managed to get them to Fort Dawnguard." He finished.

"WHAT!" I yelled. "I will kill every Thalmor for what they have done." I continued.

"Aye lad," He said, "but first we must deal with the Thalmor that are waiting for you at the docks." He added.

"Of course, Captain, ready your men. We have a fight coming." I said as Windhelm came into sight.

As we neared the docks the elves that were waiting for us began to ready themselves as they saw the armed sailors on the boat. There was around twenty Thalmor and eight soldiers from the Legion, the latter were awaiting Hadvar's orders.

"Ho, agents of the Aldmeri Dominion, what brings you to the arse cold weather of the North?" I called out.

Many of the elves seemed to take offense at that while their leader just smiled and said, "Why we have come for you, Dhar'Sii." He said while his soldiers pulled their weapons out.

"I thought as much." I said, unsheathing my sword.

"You would fight us, Dragonborn?" the Thalmor leader asked in a hiss as he drew his blade, "We are thirty and you are seven." He added.

"I count only twenty of you worm." Hadvar said as he, and the soldiers on the dock unsheathed their blades and turned to face the elves.

"Very well, let us end this." The elf leader said, moments before I leapt onto the docks.

The fight that followed was a brief but bloody fight. I had killed three elves in a matter of seconds. The first I killed by cutting my blade through his upper torso. The second one had her face smashed to a pulp by taking my shield to it. The third one I had kicked into a nearby wall with bone-breaking force. All of this had happened within the same moment that I had jumped on to the docks. After that I was facing off against their leader.

He used a summoned blade and he was able to hold me off for around a minute. At the end of that minute he swung a sidestroke at me that changed in midstroke and caught me across the thigh. Then he cast a blast of fire at me which I laughed off.

I then brought my head down upon his and knocked him out. I looked around and saw that the rest of the elves had been killed and that four of the soldiers and three of the sailors, and Hadvar, were still standing.

"That was a short fight. Don't you think so Legate?" Hadvar said fiercely with a maniacal smile spreading across his face.

"Aye friend," I agreed, "Twas a fierce fight as well, now I must acquire some information from this arsehole here." I said as I nudged the Thalmor leader with my foot. He opened his eyes to see me crouching over him.

"Good your awake." I said. Then I grabbed him and brought him over to a box were two soldiers secured his arms and legs.

"Now you will tell me exactly where they are keeping my wife." I growled into his face.

"I will not tell you anything, Argonian." He spat. I wiped the spittle off of my face then I gripped his hand and crushed it to a pulp inside of my own.

"Don't make me repeat myself, elf." I snarled. He was whimpering with pain at the injury I had dealt him.

"Okay, Okay they are keeping her at Northwatch Keep, but you won't be able to rescue her as the keep being guarded by a whole company of our warriors." He said through clenched teeth.

"I have already fought my through that keep before in order to rescue someone, what difference will a whole company make to me?" I asked calmly as I decapitated the elf.

"Hadvar, head to Fort Hraggstad and mobilize as many soldiers as you can and await my arrival. We are going to siege this keep." I ordered as I made my way across the frozen river towards the stables.

"Yes sir, Legate, For the Empire." He said saluting as he headed into Windhelm.

A day later I was just coming up a rise when I caught sight of the ruins of Heljarchen Hall, my home. It made me sad just seeing the burned down husk of building that was left standing. I dismounted Shadowmere and walked around the ruins and noticed the bodies of dead Thalmor and Stormcloaks.

"What were the Stormcloaks doing defending my home?" I asked aloud.

"They had come to help me and they were led by a man named Ralof." A feminine voice said. I pulled my sword out and turned towards the voice and saw my steward and friend, Aeola the Huntress standing there watching me.

"Don't worry about your belongings as I had saved what I could from the fire, including Wuuthraad." She told me, as I started to look around the ruins.

"Ok can you tell me what happened to Ralof?" I asked her.

"The Thalmor took him to Northwatch Keep, I had tracked them down as they had your wife as well." She told me.

"Damn… well thank you Aeola, now we must part ways, so I need you to go and check up on my children alright." I told her as I mounted Shadowmere.

"Yes milord." She replied in a servile tone as I turned and galloped off towards Solitude.

"Hmm, that's quite a few soldiers down there." I whispered to Hadvar.

"I count sixty out on guard, though there's no telling how many are on the inside." Hadvar said from beside me. We were laying on a rocky outcropping that overlooked Northwatch Keep. The Thalmor soldiers had a complete view of the surrounding area except for the swamp that was between it and the mountains to the south. That swamp was the only approach that we had available to us.

Hadvar and I had only been able to scrounge up forty-four soldiers to assault the keep with. General Tulius had told me that when he finished up at the embassy he would send as many soldiers as he could, though I hoped to have the keep under my control before then. As I looked over the keep, a plan came to me, it wasn't much of a plan but it was the best I had. I turned to Hadvar and laid out my plan to him.

The plan was that Hadvar would take around fifteen or twenty of the soldiers and use bows and arrows to provide cover for the rest of us as we would rush the gates and bash them open. After that, it would be a matter of luck as to who would win the fight, seeing as how I wasn't the best of strategists.

"It isn't much, but it will do lad." Hadvar said, once I had outlaid the plan to him. I nodded as I agreed with him on that assessment.

"Let's go back, we need to get started." I said. We crawled our way back to the swamp where our soldiers were waiting for us. Once we got there I nodded to Hadvar and told him to take his group and get into position. He selected all of the archers and jogged off with them to find a position to set up at.

I motioned to the rest of the soldiers and moved off in the direction of the keep. As we walked, a light fog settled down around the keep. This was good as it meant that the elves would not be able to see us, though it also meant that we wouldn't be able to see them as well.

The keep was getting closer and soon it practically loomed over us. This was the best opportunity that we were going to get, so it was time to start the assault.

I looked over at one of my soldiers that was holding a torch and nodded at him. He nodded and pitched the torch as high as he possibly could, which was actually pretty high, to give the signal to Hadvar and the archers.

I didn't wait to see if they started firing; instead I signaled to my men and charged the gate.

The combined weight of twenty five fully grown soldiers smashing against it caused the gate to give in slightly. We moved back a bit and smashed into it again as we did not have a battering ram. While this was happening the elves tried firing down upon us, though we had raised our shields up and interlocked them to protect ourselves from their arrows. On the fourth hit the gates slammed open and we charged into the keep's courtyard.

We were met in earnest by the elves that were waiting for us on the other side. By the time that I was ready for my shout, three of my men had been slain, though seven elves were also slain.

"Mid Vur Shaan!" I yelled and suddenly all of my soldiers were moving faster amongst the elves, due to the Battle Fury shout. I backed away from the fight and gathered my strength for another, stronger shout.

Four elves rushed me as I was preparing for my shout, and four elves fell to the ground, dead, with arrows sprouting from their chests. I turned around and saw Hadvar and his soldiers coming through the gate to aid us. He saluted and charged into battle. I turned back to the fight as I felt that I had the strength that I required for the shout.

"Mal Qah Diiv!" I yelled and my body was surrounded in strange aura that solidified into something that was reminiscent of a dragon's form.

With my newly enhanced strength I roared and charged into battle. I swung my sword in a downward arc that cut and elf from neck to navel, then, I deflected an elf's axe strike with my shield and eviscerated him with my blade. Another elf swung his blade at me while running and I stepped around his swing and planted my foot in his now exposed arse and sent him flying into a sharpened barricade.

A loud shriek caused me to look in its direction. I nearly dropped my blade at what I saw. An elf stood with my wife at the top of the keep and held his blade to her neck.

"Stop your attack if you wish to see your wife live." The elf called out.

I stared at him and saw a thin line of red appear on Serana's neck. I knew that I had to do something if I wanted her to live. But, I was kept from my thoughts as an elf swung at my head. One of my soldiers stopped the elf's blade and I growled with rage at the fact that I had almost been killed, so I slammed my shield into the elf's gut and then beheaded him.

"Wrong answer." The Thalmor at the top of the keep yelled, as he sliced Serana's neck open and pushed her off the top of the keep.

I was speechless; I didn't know that the elf had had it in him to do such a thing. I couldn't even scream as Serana's lifeless body hit the ground and at that instant my world fell apart around me, literally. The scenery, the soldiers, my wife's body, all of it disappeared and was replaced with dark, foreboding, and strangely familiar scenery and objects.

"Welcome my pawn." A thick and raspy voice said. That was when it hit me; I was in Hermaeus Mora's realm. I growled in discomfort at the chain of events and turned towards the voice.

"What do you want, demon." I snarled at the Wretched Abyss that was Hermaeus Mora.

"Why to tell you that your time on this world is at an end and that it is time for you to head to a new one, of course." It replied in what was supposed to be a cheerful tone I guessed.

"What do you mean?" I asked, a sense of foreboding falling upon me.

"Exactly what I said Dhar'Sii, I am going to be sending you to a new world, one that you will not be able to return from." It said still in its cheerful tone.

"I won't let you." I growled and settled into a ready stance.

"Tsk, Tsk, Dhar'Sii, I thought you would know better by now, you cannot hurt a Daedric Prince." It said as one of its tentacles wrapped around me and started squeezing. I started to lose the ability to breathe and I felt several of the bones in my body break. Just before darkness overwhelmed me I felt myself being moved and then falling hard onto a grassy surface. And right before I stopped seeing, a strange, equine-looking creature was standing over me and it appeared to be dumbstruck by my appearance.

It seemed to say something to me but I never caught what it said as everything went black.


	2. The Awakening

Chapter 2

The Awakening

POV Princess Luna

The night was progressing at its usual pace; meaning that I was listening to hundreds of complaints during court and making my reports on the night. And as I worked on this night's report I felt myself growing bored and tired.

"Hmm, perhaps we shall take a walk to clear our head." I said to myself as I got up and made my way to my door. When I walked out my guards immediately started to follow me. I assured them that I did not require their assistance and that I would only be gone for an hour or two.

That seemed to please them as they nodded their heads and resumed their posts at my door. I continued to walk through the corridors of Castle Everfree until I was entering the courtyard, which is where took flight and soared over the Everfree forest from.

I rejoiced in the freedom I felt from flying and I even performed some loops and dives and I squeal with delight. Eventually I set down in a clearing and began to walk, enjoying the time to myself until.

"I see that you are out and about again, Princess." A deep and raspy voice drawled out, seemingly from everywhere and nowhere at once.

I sighed, knowing that my freedom from others would not last, as this creature had taken antagonizing me for the past few months. It seemed to command an endless amount of knowledge as it would speak to me about things that weren't of this world. It also told me that I could know everything, a very tempting prospect I might add, if I did a few favors for it, not a very tempting thought.

"Let us be creature, for we are attempting to clear my head." I said, referring to it as a creature as it had never revealed itself to me nor has it told me what it is.

"Tut, tut, princess, one of royalty never has time for a clear head, I thought that you would have known that by now." It said in a slightly amused voiced.

"Why dost thou have to antagonize us creature?" I asked in an exasperated tone, as I imagined myself strangling it. This creature was really getting tiresome.

"Why, because an immortal needs to be able to amuse itself every now and then. Don't you agree Princess?" It said.

"What dost thou mean? What kind of creature is thou?" I asked, startled by what it said.

"I am but an eternal, never fading, never getting older, and I most certainly never forget anything. I know all about this world and every other world, as I am Hermaeus Mora, the Daedric Prince of knowledge." It said as it laughed at my discomfort at its words.

This creature had just told me what it was but it didn't help as I had never heard of it before. It must be very powerful if what it claims is true.

"Oh!" It exclaimed, startling me out of my reverie, "I must go, a very interesting event is about to happen and it requires my full attention. Tata princess and please do get along nicely with the person you are about to meet." It said cheerfully as its presence faded from my mind.

I nearly choked at what it said. Who would I meet? I certainly wasn't out to meet anyone. That creature was strange; it was almost reminiscent of Discord, but far more serious and sinister.

The next few minutes went by without event until I came into another, larger clearing. There was nothing wrong with it when I entered it but what happened next was really strange.

A writhing, black mass of tentacles appeared out of nowhere and deposited an armored lizard on the grass.

The lizard-thing looked up at me with bright blue and intelligent eyes that were glossed over with pain and exhaustion. I tried to say something to it, but its eyes rolled up in the back of its head as it passed out. I looked it over as it lay there and took in its appearance.

Its face had a snout that was maybe two inches longer than mine. It had two large horns that came out the back of its skull, and several smaller ones that ran from the middle of its forehead down to the base of its spine. Four more spikes came out on either side of the bottom of its jaw at the base of its cheekbones. And there were two spikes right underneath its mouth. Its scales were a dark green with a bluish tint while its neck was a light bluish green. Its armor appeared to be made out of the bones and scales of a creature that was much larger than it. Its sword was also made out of the bone-like material. There was an axe on its waist that glowed like it burned with an inner fire. The creature also had three scars around its left eye that looked like they might have been inflicted by claws. The creature also appeared to have multiple broken bones; its left forelimb, right leg, and several of its ribs on its left side all appeared to be broken.

I realized that I had to get this being to an apothecary immediately. But before I could do anything a roar split the night.

I looked up to see a rather large manticore, at the edge of the clearing, staring at me with baleful eyes, and I could sense an intense hunger emanating from it. Usually I would have my guards handle this but I told them to stay behind. So, not knowing what to do I screamed, hoping that somepony was around to hear.

POV Dhar'Sii

"Aaaaahhhhh!" A voice screamed, snapping me into full alertness. I looked around and saw a monster that was part lion, part goat, and part scorpion, charging at an equine creature that was wearing a tiara and a neckpiece. She was obviously a princess of some kind and she was in need of help. So I did the one thing that came to my mind and shouted, "Fus Ro Da!"

A wave of force tore from my lips and slammed into the monster, setting it off balance. It turned and roared at me in frustration.

"Come and fight me, Beast!" I challenged, as I used the Amulet of Talos to help me gather strength for another shout.

The monster roared its acceptance and charged me. It got to be ten feet away by the time that I was ready for my shout.

"Yol Toor Shul!" I yelled and an inferno sprang from my lips and charred the monster to a crisp. It toppled over next to me. I raised my blade and slammed it into its head, making sure it was dead, then I turned to the equine.

"Are you o…" that was as far as I got, as when I went to take a step, my leg collapsed and everything went black.

POV Princess Luna

I was awestruck, the creature the I had previously believed was unconscious had yelled with such force that he stopped a manticore in its tracks and then he managed to breath fire like a dragon and burned the manticore killing it. He had done all of this before the pain of his injuries overwhelmed him.

I walked over to his body and levitated it onto my back and flew back to the castle.

As soon as I landed I was swarmed by a large group of my guards and my sister, Princess Celestia.

"Dearest sister, we are glad that thou are alright. We felt something bad had befallen you and…. WHAT IS THAT!" she yelled pointing her hoof at the creature on my back.

"This creature protected us from a manticore. It saved us even though it had sustained life threatening injuries before it appeared in this world." I told her as I set the creature on the ground and sent my guards to go fetch an apothecary.

"Dearest sister, we sense a thick aura of death and suffering coming off of this creature. It could prove dangerous." Celestia said eyeing the creature cautiously.

"Dearest sister, this creature acted with honorable intentions and protected us from a beast that would have killed us. And it did so with injuries that would any normal pony from doing so much as sitting up." I said defensively, stepping protectively in front of the creature's body.

"Very well sister, but this creature's actions is thou's responsibility." She said, relenting

"Of course, sister." I replied as my guards returned with an apothecary. I followed them inside as they carried his body away.

POV Dhar'Sii

I woke up to find myself lying in a very soft bed with bandages wrapped around my chest holding my broken ribs in place. My arm and leg were already healed strangely enough. I sat up in the bed to take in my surroundings, gasping from the pain I felt in my chest.

"Easy there big fella." A slightly amused voice said off to my right. I looked in that direction and saw a brown pony staring at me in an amused manner. I guess you could say that I was astounded to here a horse speak in my own tongue but I was more amazed at the hourglass tattoo-like mark on his rear.

"Who are you?" I asked him, still getting a hold of my thoughts.

"The name's Time Turner, but everypony usually just calls me the Doctor." He said extending his forehoof to shake.

"Mine's Dhar'Sii." I said shaking his hoof, amazed that he could grasp with it.

"It's good to see that you're awake, sorry we couldn't do much with your ribs, but we weren't sure that it was safe to mess with them." He said smiling.

"It's alright I can fix that." I said as I cast a healing spell and grimaced with pain as I felt the bones sliding back together and healing themselves.

"H-how?" Time Turner asked, wide-eyed.

"Magic." I said, winking.

POV Princess Luna

I was just going over the nights reports and wondering about the creature that saved me when a guard poked his head in.

"Your Majesty, thou's creature hast awoken." He said.

"We thank thou for keeping us informed, Captain." I said as I rushed past him and down to the apothecarium.

A few minutes later I was standing in front of the creature's door. I took a deep breath and walked in.

What I saw surprised me, the creature and the apothecary were in the middle of a deep discussion, so they did not hear me enter.

"So you are saying that the pegusai can control the weather, and that only unicorns can use magic." The creature said in response to something that Time Turner had said.

"Yes of course, and you said that the weather behaves of its own accord, where you come from. Correct?" he said back.

"Yes of course I did now let's…" the creature started to say but stopped when he caught sight of me.

"My apologies ma'am for I did not hear you enter." He said in a polite and well mannered tone.

"Ah, I think that I will leave the two of you alone, Princess." Time Turner said, leaving.

"There is no need for thou to apologize, as we should have made our presence know to thou." I said reassuring the creature with a smile, and ignoring the Doctor.

"Of course." He said, "and I suppose that I have you to thank for bringing me here to heal my wounds." He added smiling.

"Yes thou may thank us, as it was the least we could do for you saving us in the woods from the manticore. Though the apothecary said it would be a few weeks before thou's injuries were healed." I said staring pointedly at his bare chest, which was starting to make me uncomfortable, though it was a rather good kind of uncomfortable.

"Oh, it was nothing a little of my restoration magic couldn't fix." He said placing a hand on his chest.

"Magic thou says? What is thou's name if we might be so bold as to ask?" I said as I sat down. Wondering how he could use magic without a horn.

"My name is Dhar'Sii and I am at your service, your majesty." Dhar'Sii said, "Perhaps it would be best if I offered you some food?" he asked as he reached into his bag and started pulling out fruits, vegetables, and sweets. His face becoming red with nervousness, I noticed.

"We would very much like that." I said, causing him to blush even more as I giggled at his discomfort.

POV Dhar'Sii

Normally I would have berated myself for acting as brashly as I just did, if I hadn't of been enjoying the picnic as much as I was right now. Sitting next to this divine being was like feasting on Sovngarde, it made me feel so alive. More alive than the day I returned from fighting Alduin and from returning from the Soul Shard.

We sat there, barely touching the food, just absorbing each other's stories of our lives. Luna took special interest in my tale of fighting Alduin.

"So, you were able to go to the beyond and kill a god, yet emerge unscathed?" she asked mystified by it.

"Yes, and the experience cemented my faith in the Nordic religion. But it was not the only time that I have traveled to the beyond as you call it." I said, shocking her even more, then I recounted my quest to defeat Harkin and stop the vampires, and how I met my wife.

As I told this tale and about Serana, I started sobbing softly as I fingered the wedding band on my left hand.

What troubles thou, Dhar'Sii?" Luna asked noticing my sobs. I looked up at her and wiped my eyes.

"That is a story for another time." I said as I began to clear up the food and place it in my bag.

She looked disappointed but took the hint and got up to leave. But before she left, she placed a hoof on my shoulder and spoke softly into my ear, "If thou requires our company, Dhar'Sii, thou hast only to ask and we will be there." Then she turned and left. I looked up and watched her as she left until the door closed, then I sighed and went to clean my weapons and armor, which was on a table in the room.

"I see that you have gotten along splendidly in this new world, Dhar'Sii." A voice that could only be Hermaeus Mora said.

"Let me be demon." I growled into the air, gripping my axe out of reflex as I did so.

"Come now Dhar'Sii. That is no way to treat the one who has helped you so much. Or have you already forgotten what I have done for you, especially your fight against Miraak." He said laughing.

"HELP! Is that what you call it? You only 'helped' me because you wanted to get rid of Miraak and replace him with me. And I told you already that I did not want that 'honor' as you so eloquently put it." I roared, "Not to mention the fact that you took me against my will to a new world and nearly killed me in the process." I added.

"How naïve you are Dhar'Sii. Of course you are my servant, whether you want to or not, and of course I am helping you, otherwise you would have never met Princess Luna." He said with a tint of exasperation.

"Even in this new world you still dog me?" I said staring at the wall.

"I will always dog you, even in your precious Sovngarde, that is if I let your soul go there." He laughed maniacally after saying this and faded from my mind.

"Talos, protect me from that abomination and protect Luna from him as well." I prayed gripping my Amulet of Talos

**Author's note: hey listen up everybody, thanks for reading this story up to here. Post whatever thoughts that ** **you might have on it. Tell me what you might want to see, or what there needs to be more of or just general comments. I would very much appreciate the feedback. See you later, may your swords stay sharp.**


	3. Beast Blood

Chapter Three

Beast Blood

_Carnivore_

_Carnivore_

_Won't you come digest me?_

_Take away everything I am_

_Bring it to an end_

_Carnivore_

_Carnivore_

_Could you come and change me?_

_Take away everything I am_

_EVERYTHING I AM!_

_Carnivore _

_By Starset_

POV Princess Luna

Over the next few weeks Dhar'Sii and I would see each other often. Some days or nights we would walk around the castle gardens or we would find a place to sit and just talk. Over the days I started to grow more and more attracted to him. Though, he did like to pull his tricks.

One night, when I was in my room reading, I heard my balcony doors open. I looked over there and didn't see anypony, so I went over to close it and saw Dhar'Sii, perched on the edge of my balcony, smiling at me. I smiled back and walked over to him, where he sat down on the edge and allowed me to rest my head against his chest.

"We bid thee good evening, Dhar'Sii." I said to him. He looked down at me and smiled at me.

"Good evening to you as well, Luna." He said back, though he smiled, I could sense that something was troubling him, and I couldn't get a clear look at his face to see what it was.

"Does something trouble thou tonight?" I asked genuine worry in my voice.

"It's just that I do not know what I am supposed to do now that I am here." He said in a beaten tone, "There are no conflicts for me to solve, nor are there any evils that I can fight. I don't know what to do with my life here, I feel as if I am just languishing away without a cause to take up." He finished, turning to look out over the castle walls.

I lifted my head up from its spot on his chest and stared hard at the side of his face. "Thou is not languishing here, thou hast given us companionship and hast also been working with training the royal guard, we do not see how that is languishing away your strengths." I said in a hard tone. He turned his eyes toward me and I was shocked to see his haggard appearance. It was as if he was not getting enough sleep at nights or that some memories were haunting him. "Why dost thou's face have a haggard look to it?" I asked him.

"I do not sleep well at nights due to my beast blood; it prevents me from getting comfortable at night." He said.

"What dost thou mean by 'beast blood'?" I asked, intrigued.

He took a deep breath then began to recount a tale that he never told me before. It was a tale about how he joined a group of warriors who called themselves the Companions, and how he started off as a lowly servant and worked his up to the point where they asked him to join their inner 'circle'. "Now you must realize that in order for me to join it, I had to become one of them by drinking the blood of the beast." He said before continuing his story. Then he came to talk about how he had to fight against a group whose mission in life was to destroy the werewolves, and then about how he went on to cure every member of the Companions' inner circle but himself of their beast. After that, he said, he never found the time to go back to Ysgramor's tomb to cure himself, so it has haunted him since.

"So it is this beast that haunts thou, correct?" I asked him to make sure that I got the gist of the story.

"Aye, that and the memories of my past." He said in a quiet tone. He didn't need to explain as I had heard about what had happened before he came to Equestria, beforehand.

"So, thou still holds onto their past, even though it haunts them?" I said pointedly to him.

"I'm not going to let go of past, Luna, I'm just not going to let it control who I am." He said back to me as he slid off the railing and onto the balcony.

"So why hast thou come to us tonight?" I asked him as walked back to my chambers.

"Why to spend some time with you of course." He said following me. Once we were both in there I closed the doors and locked them with my magic.

POV Dhar'Sii

The nightmare started off as it normally did. I was running for my life, running from the beast inside as it was trying to devour me. It was chasing me over an endless frozen wasteland, I couldn't hide, I could only run. So I pushed on, and after a while the ice beneath me broke and I fell in. Normally, my Argonian physiology would allow me to breathe underwater, but nothing is the same in the world of nightmares, I thought as I started to lose my breath. I sensed something coming from underneath me and I looked down to see my beast swimming up towards me. I started swimming to the surface, hoping to get there before my beast took me, but it wasn't enough.

I snapped awake as soon as the beast's jaws snapped shut around me. I sat up in bed, my heart pounding, my head spinning, and my skin freezing. It took a few minutes for me to get my bearings and to realize that I was not in my room. I had to look down to my left to actually figure out where I was. The princess of the night lay in bed next to me, a slight smile to her lips as she dreamed her pleasant dream.

I got out of the bed and headed to the showers, where I undressed and turned the water to warm. Ever since the Doctor showed me how I could turn a knob and summon heated water without needing magic, I had fallen in love with this contraption; I would stand in the shower for hours with warm water cascading down onto me simply because it felt good. I stood in the shower and let the water warm my flesh as my blood wouldn't be able to do that for me.

When I was done I got out and began toweling myself off, oblivious to the very shocked and flustered Princess Luna standing in the doorway, looking at me in my full glory. I had clothed myself in my Reaver armor before I saw her.

"Oh, hi there, see enough?" I asked her as I saw her face, and I could guess how long she had been there.

"We, um… we did not know that thou wouldst stay as long as they did." She said perplexed by my casualness.

"Yeah, I kind of fell asleep after you lowered the moon." I said as I placed my clothes from last night in my bag and pulled out my dragonbone blade and attached it to my belt.

"What is thou preparing for?" Luna asked me as she stared quizzically over my armor.

"I am going to go out on a walk for a few days, to get a feel for the land as this is my new home now." I told her as I did a quick run through on my bag.

"Oh? And when will thou return?" she asked as she helped me make sure that my bag was organized, though she wasn't much help because she wasn't used to the bag's magical properties.

"By the end of the week at the latest." I said. That would give five days to go over the northern parts of the land.

"Well be sure that we are the first one thou sees when they return." She said as I made my way to the door.

"Of course I will, Luna." I said as I left.

Third Person POV

A lone Equestrian soldier could be seen running along a road away from the smoking ruins of a border outpost along the northern Equestrian border. He was running so that he could warn other outposts about the army that had destroyed his outpost.

He looked back to see if he was being followed, but did not see a patch of ice in front of him. It sent him flying into a nearby tree with such force that he broke his back. As he lay there, drifting away in pain, he vaguely noticed the Minotaur step over him and raised its axe.

"No survivors." It growled as it brought the axe down upon the soldier's head, cracking it open like a nut.

The Minotaur stared off in the direction of Castle Everfree as a large force of the brutal ogres of the north marched past him. He pulled his lips back in a feral snarl; they were coming to destroy Equestria.

POV Dhar'Sii

I had been walking for a couple of days now and I was barely even able to cover a quarter of the area that I wanted to cover in the week as I was unused to this land's terrain and that hunting for food was rather difficult, because it was hard to find any animals in this snowy weather.

I was currently walking along a deer trail as I wound my way through the mountains towards a column of smoke that I had spotted last night. According to the maps I had, the smoke was on the border of Equestria and an unnamed northern country.

After a few more minutes I came upon the road that would lead up to the smoke, which seemed to come from an nearby outpost. But my attention was taken by tracks that were made in the snow. They were recent too, only a few hours old. Whatever had made these tracks was huge, and there were a lot of them, they probably numbered a thousand, give or take a couple hundred.

Not only that, but there was a dead Equestrian soldier lying against a tree across from me. His spine was obviously broken, but that wasn't what had killed him, as his skull was cracked open from a very serious axe blow. The blow was done after the pony's spine was broken.

He was killed around the same time these tracks were made so whoever did this was close by, and they were probably resting for the night. I set off in pursuit of this extremely large party.

A few hours later I came upon the creatures, which were actually around a thousand ogres, plus one extremely big minotaur and one gigantic hairless spider. They were all resting right now so I decided to be sneaky and pull out Auriel's Bow and six explosive arrows.

I notched two arrows and let them fly into the middle of the encampment and sent a third at the spider. The arrows found their marks. The explosions of the first two killed around seventy-five of the ogres because they were packed together. The third blew the spider to tiny bits. But that didn't do shit, as the ogres all got up and charged at me.

"Talos be damned." I cursed as I got up and ran away from them. I managed to lose most of them but there was still a good two hundred of them chasing me. I lost sight of them when I passed a copse of trees and I decided to leave a little something for them when they caught up. I tied a really thin wire between two trees that could easily allow twenty of the ogres to pass through and at the average ogre neck height. After that I jumped into a tree and notched the last three arrows in my quiver and waited.

They ran headlong into my little trap, which killed around twenty of them. Those that were killed had run into it with such force that it actually decapitated them. The ones that were behind those, stopped abruptly and looked around in confusion. They were tightly packed together as well, so I let loose the last three arrows in my quiver and watched as fifty of them were blown apart by the explosions. Then I dropped in amongst them.

I cut one down then forced another into the path of an oncoming blade. After that I sliced the ogre that had swung that blade in half. Spinning around I loped off an ogre's arm and redirected a spear into the gut of the former and decapitated the owner of the latter.

The ogres surrounded me, but they could attack in small groups, as to how tightly packed together they were. I killed a few more ogres and started to feel my strength ebb. I knew that I could handle the ogres that were around me right now, but by glimpse in a gap between some of the ogres, I could see that they had reinforcement's incoming. Even with my shouts, I never would be able to hold them off. So I did the only thing that I could think of doing. I released the beast.

POV Princess Luna

After one of my scouts told me about the army of ogres that had come across the border I had scrambled a large force of soldiers together. My sister had done the same but she would be checking the borders, to see if there weren't any other incursions. My force and I were heading to engage the ogres where they had last been spotted; a miles south of the outpost that they had destroyed.

When we got there I was expecting to have to fight a large army of ogres, not watch in amazement as the last few surviving ogres fled back to the border. Their army was destroyed. Many of their fallen appeared to have been partially eaten. As I stared I wondered what could have defeated this army.

I got my answer sooner than expected, as a few yards to my left, amongst the piles of dead ogres, a large ogre stood grappling with a huge wolf-like thing. The thing was easily a foot taller than the ogre and its fur was thickly matted with ogre blood. As I watched, the thing threw the ogre a good ten feet, then leaped that same distance, and tore out the ogre's throat with its mouth and eviscerated the ogre with its claws.

The creature stood up and turned towards me, the look of hunger in its eyes, fading into a look of tenderness that seemed familiar to me. By the time I placed it, it was already too late. The thing took a step in my direction and one of my guards mistook it for aggression and let loose an arrow. The arrow took the creature in the throat, and it roared out in pain and fell to the ground, where it morphed back into a familiar shape.

"Do not shoot, hold thy arrows." I yelled at my guards as I raced over to Dhar'Sii's battered form. "Oh dearest Dhar'Sii, please speak." I said, worried that Dhar'Sii had been killed. He rolled onto his back and, gripping the arrow, gestured for me to step back. I complied and watched in horror as he yanked the arrow out, then I breathed in relief as he cast a healing spell to seal the wound.

"Ugh, I do not want to experience that again." He said as he sat up. I squealed in delight and embraced him; burying my face into his chest.

"Hehe, it is good to see you too, princess." He said as he gently pried me away and stood up. "Which one of you fired that arrow." He said as he pulled some clothes out of his bag, which had miraculously stayed on his form, and dressed himself. A guard reluctantly stepped forward and lowered his head. "I did, sir." He said. I stared at him, rage building up inside of me, but before I could do anything, Dhar'Sii placed his hand on my shoulder and shook his head.

He walked up to the guard and raised his hand as if to strike, causing the guard to flinch, but instead surprised us all by placing it on his shoulder and handing him back his arrow, saying, "I believe that this belongs to you. By the way, nice shot." Dhar'Sii then patted him on the back and walked back over to me.

"Don't be angry with him, Luna, he was just doing his duty, and if I were him, I'd have done the same thing." He said as he placed an arm around my shoulders and kissed me.

**Author's not: well I got that done sooner than expected, maybe I'll be able to get a couple more chapters in before the week is out if I continue at this pace. So what do you think so far, eh? Hope you guys enjoyed this.**


	4. Dragon Hunter

Chapter Four

Dragon Hunter

_Get up! Get up! Get up!_

_Ima show you everything I got inside!_

_I won't give up! Give up!_

_Never backing down this is my fight!_

_My Fight_

_By From Ashes to New_

POV Princess Luna

Today was open court day, and I was sitting in the throne room listening to a farmer accuse an urban pony of being a thief, when the captain of my guards pushed past them and bowed to me in a rushed manner.

"Your majesty, a dragon has been spotted burning down the town of Sunnyvale." He said. Everypony in the hall gasped and started whispering. Dragons were not unheard of in Equestria, but they had never before attacked an Equestrian city or town before.

I nodded to my captain and gestured that I wanted to speak to him in private. He got the message then turned around.

"The court is closed for the night, return to thy homes, we will remedy this situation." He called out and all of the guards began to usher the civilians out.

"Captain, go and put together a force of twelve of their best soldiers. We will go and secure the help of one who can fight the dragon." I said as I got up to leave.

"Right away, your majesty." The captain said as he rushed to go and complete his orders. I walked out of the throne room. Tonight was the last night of the week, which meant that it was chess night, so I went off in the direction of a certain, dragon fighting, somepony.

POV Dhar'Sii

"I believe that that is check-mate." I said triumphantly as I placed my queen in front of Time Turner's king, effectively closing off my trap and preventing any means of escape for him.

"It is indeed, what does that make us, tied again, twenty-one and twenty-one?" He said back, sarcastically. I laughed at that, though, he was right. We had been playing chess ever since early this afternoon and it had been back and forth since then. He would beat me than the next match I would beat him, or vice versa. It had been like this ever since we started doing this two months back, a couple of weeks before the ogre incursion.

"So, it is to be a draw then?" I asked as I could see that he was growing rather tired.

"Aye, as much as I hate to say it, it will be a another draw." He said, putting the pieces away and placing the box in his saddle bag.

"Perhaps one of us will beat the other next time." He said as moved to the door.

I grunted my acknowledgement as my eyes closed and I leaned back in the chair that I was sitting in.

"Oh, Princess Luna, I didn't see you there, excuse me." I heard the Doctor exclaim. My eyes snapped open when I heard Luna's name and I was on my feet before she had even entered the doorway. I greeted her the moment she walked in.

"Good evening, Luna." I said with a broad smile and hugged her, then kissed her.

"Good evening to thou as well, Dhar'Sii." She said once we pulled away from each other. Ever since the night that I fought against the ogres, we had never stopped seeing each other in our free time. Not to mention the fact that most of it was spent in her room. Usually my time would be spent either training both Luna's and Celestia's guards, or learning from Doctor Whooves about the various sciences in this world and of their magic.

As I looked into Luna's face, I got the feeling that she wasn't just here to talk; she needed me to do something, and it was something serious too.

"What is it, Luna?" I asked her, standing straighter, noticing her change after hearing my question.

"A dragon hast attacked the town of Sunnyvale, and we did not knoweth how to fight a dragon, so we thought that thou might knoweth a way to take care of it." She said as she handed me my bag.

"Of course I do, I mean, I am the Dragonborn after all." I said, as started looking for my armor. She smiled and helped don my armor.

Half an hour later, we walked out of the castle and into the courtyard where a group of twelve pony soldiers were standing. I was wearing my full dragonbone armor, including the special helmet that I had forged to fight snuggly over my head, snout and all, with my horns sticking out of the back of it. I immediately recognized one of them as the one who put an arrow into my neck. I started to feel better about this, because if I had a soldier who could put an arrow into my neck in the blink of an eye fighting a dragon by my side, then I knew that we could at least be able to bring the dragon to ground.

"Your majesty, we have assembled the party as thou asked us to." A captain said, bowing to Luna.

"We thank thou for their hurried completion of our orders." She said to him, "And here is Dhar'Sii, he will lead the group on the hunt for this dragon." She gestured to me.

I looked at the soldiers, all of them I had trained, though never necessarily for a fight against a dragon, but I knew that they weren't going to flee from it, especially not with me leading them.

"Ok, at least they don't look like they just got out of bed a few minutes ago." I said, even though I knew for a fact that none of these soldiers had duty at this time, and that they had all been enjoying a goodnight's rest. And they knew that I knew when they had been roused from bed.

"Well what are you waiting for, breakfast, you can eat while you walk. Let's move it out." I said gesturing towards the gates. Luna stopped me before I moved and kissed me.

"Be careful out there." She said once we broke our kiss.

"You know I just so happened to plan on taking a jump off of a cliff and onto a field of spikes." I deadpanned as I swooped in to steal another kiss before I jogged off after the soldiers.

Four hours later we came across the ruins of Sunnyvale. Even though most of the town had been burned down, not all of the inhabitants had been killed. Those that weren't critically injured were currently helping the guards of the town put out the fires or helping out those who were critically injured. I walked up to the guard who was in charge to get some information.

"You there, general," I called out, as that was what the markings on his armor said, and waited for him to turn around. When he didn't I walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me but I happened to lose my dragon a ways back, and I need to know where it went." I said, giving a sense of levity to an already grim situation.

"It went off towards the mountains in the west." He said pointing, "Why do you need to know? Are you going to kill it?" he asked as he stared at me and twelve soldiers standing behind me.

"Aye, we're going to kill it, or, at the very least, give it a reason to never attack an Equestrian town ever again." I said as I gestured for the soldiers to continue on towards the peaks.

"Huh, well good luck with that, he's one big son-of-a-bitch, I'll tell you, maybe about the length of this town in wingspan alone." The general said, as he walked off towards where some guards were having trouble clearing up the road, "Come on chop, chop we don't got all day." He yelled, causing them to work harder and faster.

I shook my head as I turned to follow my soldiers. A dragon with a wingspan of that size would make for one helluva fight, I thought to myself as I caught up to them and continued the hike.

The hike would turn out to having to have taken serval days. On one night when I and the soldier who had shot me were standing guard, I decided to ease the tension between the two of us.

"What's your name lad?" I asked still staring out, keeping my eyes peeled for anything that would sneak up on us.

"Iridescent Arrow, sir." He said, still conscious about how he almost killed me.

"Well then, I'll refer to you as Iri then. How's that sound?" I asked him, allowing myself to get comfortable around him.

"That is acceptable." He said, his tone suggesting that he was uncomfortable with such colloquial conversation. I laughed slightly at that, a soldier who wasn't used to being candid.

"You can be candid around me soldier. I don't mind." I said, trying to ease his mind.

"Of course s… I mean… of course." He said, getting flustered, as he didn't know how to act candidly. "Excuse me sir, but why didn't you punish me for attacking you?" He asked.

"I didn't punish you because you were just performing your duty to protect your princess, and if you had come at any time prior to that moment, that would have been exactly what you needed to do." I said to him as I turned toward him.

"But according to…." He tried to say but was cut off by the ground shaking as something very large swooped over us.

"DRAGON!" I yelled, causing the soldiers who were sleeping to wake up. We scrambled to get ready as I felt the dragon coming around on a second pass over us. This time it roared as it passed over us and I was able to see just how big it really was. If this thing stood up on its hind legs, it would be as tall Dragonsreach in Whiterun. And its wingspan would have stretched from the Blue Palace in Solitude all the way to the outskirts of Dragonsbridge.

This thing was huge, and I had to take it out with twelve soldiers and my shouts.

"Wait a minute… my shouts." I thought aloud. I picked out a very certain shout and gathered my strength for it, hoping that it would work with this dragon. I waited for it to come on its third pass. As it did, it started breathing fire. "Shields!" I yelled to the soldiers. I could stand there and take the fire as the dragon bones and scales that my armor was made out of could resist fire. I waited a few more seconds for it to get in range, then just as its fire was about to hit me I shouted, "Joor Zah Frul!"

An ice like substance formed around the dragon's wings, forcing it to land a few hundred feet away. While my soldiers were still recovering, I sprinted for the dragon gathering up my strength for another shout along the way. The dragon looked at me as ran towards it reared its head back to strike me, but before it was ready to strike I was ready to shout.

"Tiid Clo Ul!" I yelled and time slowed to a crawl for everything but me. I ran up the dragon's front leg and swung my blade across its neck, then I ran up its neck and jumped off, swinging my blade across its face as I did so. I hit the ground and rolled, and when I got up time resumed at its normal pace.

The dragon was roaring in pain at the wounds that I had dealt to it in a matter of seconds to it, though it felt like half a minute to me. And thanks to the Slow Time Shout, my strength was ready for another shout.

"Gol Hah Dov!" I yelled as I used my Thu'um to bend the dragon's mind to my will. After a few seconds the dragon lowered its head and looked straight at me.

"What do you want, Lizard?" it snarled at me. Even though it was under my control, it still did not like the thought of it.

"Why did you attack that town?" I asked it, gesturing in the general direction of Sunnyvale.

"Because they were stealing my treasure." It said to me in a loud, almost a roar, voice. I snorted, of course a dragon is going to be worried about its treasure, I thought to myself. Though, something didn't quite add up. The ponies in Equestria knew that to take a dragon's gold was to seal their doom, and they didn't like trouble anyways, though there was the occasional crime every now and then. So what could possibly drive somepony to take a dragon's gold, or cause a dragon to think that somepony was. There was only one option, seeing as how the only other creature that could do that was stuck, for the time being as a stone statue in the royal gardens at Canterlot, and that was Hermaeus More, the bastard that brought me here.

"Let me guess somepony told you that your treasure was being stolen? Is that it?" I said still smirking.

"Yes they did." The dragon said, "And they also told us that YOU were going to try and kill us." It said though it did sound confused. Yes it was definitely Hermaeus Mora that was instigating this conflict, come to think of it, I believe that I feel his presence nearby, I thought to myself. Just after saying this, a sense of foreboding fell upon me as I realized what was about to happen.

"Get Clear!" I yelled to my soldiers, as I covered myself with my shield. It was in the nick of time too, because a second later fired washed over me. I rolled out of my guard and cast a lightning bolt at the dragon, blowing off a wing. It roared then swung a gigantic paw at me. I rolled out of the way and sliced at the dragon's wrist.

The soldiers started firing arrows and casting spells at. The dragon brought its tale around and sent four of the soldiers crashing into the trees. I roared in anger at that then I shouted, "Dur Neh Viir!" and another dragon appeared in front of me. Durnehviir stared at me, awaiting a command, I pointed at the other dragon and Durnehviir took off and started harrying the much larger dragon.

I used the Amulet of Talos and prepared myself for a more tiresome shout.

"Gaan Lah Haas!" I yelled and the dragon started getting slower and weaker as my shout drained its vitality and fed me with it. I roared, and then launched myself at my opponent. I cut at its legs then at its stomach. When I rolled out from underneath its stomach, its tail hit me and sent me flying into a tree. I got then ran at it, gathering my strength for yet another shout.

"Feim Zii Gron!" I yelled as my flesh became transparent and I launched myself at the dragon and flew into its chest. I became tangible again after that and I brought my blade down across its now exposed heart. I felt the dragon shudder as blood started squirting from its heart and heart started beating faster. I turned towards the inside of the dragon's chest and yelled, "Fus Ro Da!" and the dragon's chest burst outward in a fountain of blood.

I came flying out with the blood and turned around to watch the dragon as it collapsed to the ground, dead.

Durnehviir landed next to me and commented on my use of my Thu'um.

"Once again you have proven your mastery of the Thu'um, I am honored to serve you Thu'ri." He said as his soul faded back into the realm of Soul Shard.

I turned back and saw the remaining eight soldiers staring, disbelievingly at me as I stood there, soaked in dragon's blood. Iri was actually trying his hardest to keep his jaw from dropping.

"What are you staring at me for?" I yelled at them, "We have dead brothers that need to be buried." I said gesturing to where the dragon had sent four of my men flying.

**Author's note: Just thought I'd get another chapter in before the day is out, thanks to those who have been following this story. You know, I didn't think that I could type this much in a day. Hope you are enjoying this.**


	5. Demons

**Author's Note: hey guys here is the latest installment to the story, sorry about the longer than usual wait, but I will be updating weekly from here on out, if I can that is, but… uh… here you go….. Enjoy.**

Chapter Five

Demons

_Take me high and I'll sing_

_Oh you make everything Ok, ok, ok_

_Ok, ok, ok_

_We are one and the same_

_Oh you take all of the pain away, away, away_

_Away, away, away_

_Save Me! If I become _

_My Demons!_

_My Demons by Starset_

POV Dhar'Sii

It took us several hours to bury the fallen soldiers. We started right after the first rays of sunlight could be seen on the horizon, and by the time we finished it was almost time for the sun to set. I had the others prepare the bodies while Iridescent Arrow and I dug the graves. Once that was done we placed the bodies in the graves and tossed dead vegetation, and chopped wood in the graves, then we lit it on fire.

The bodies burned for a few hours and we stood there watching that entire time. During that time I noticed that all of the remaining soldiers had tears in their eyes, and that was when I realized that death was a rarity here in Equestria, and I felt sympathy towards them as the first time I experienced death was when assassins had murdered my comrades during the days that I had been a pirate, which was days before I had gone to Skyrim. After they were done burning we tossed the dirt into the graves to bury the ashes.

I told the soldiers to pack the fallen soldiers' gear, and as they did that and made their way done the mountain I knelt done by each grave and said a prayer to Shor, beseeching their souls to him. After that I jogged to catch up to the others.

The trip back was a silent one. None of the soldiers would speak as they were still mourning their comrades. I left them to it, as I knew how it felt to lose friends in combat. Several days later we walked into Sunnyvale, or, the mass of tents that served as housing for the civilians, and were greeted by the same general that had been there before. He was using his magic to smoke a pipe as well.

"Welcome back sir." He said to me when I walked up to him and shook his hoof. "We heard all of the commotion from your fight with the beast a few days back, and judging by the look of your group I am going to assume that things didn't go too well." He added as he took another drag from his pipe and puffed it out.

"We killed it, but lost four soldiers in the process." I said, and then gave Iri a command to take the soldiers and continue on to Castle Everfree. "How about you sir," I said addressing him, "What have the princesses given for you to do?" I asked him, looking around at the miserable villagers. The morning light with the overcast made for a rather grim looking site.

"I am to finish with helping the ponies of Sunnyvale get back on their feet, and then I have to go on a recruiting spree in order to be able to cope with the enhanced number of guards that the princesses want for every town and city." He said looking at his soldiers work. I watched as well. The guards were currently clearing another clearing so that they could fix the crowding issue with the civilians.

"By the way the name's Arken, General Arken." He said extending his hoof again.

"Mine's Dhar'Sii, it's a pleasure, General." I said accepting his hoof. Luna had told me some stories about General Arken, and from what I had heard about him, he seemed like an exceptional commander.

"The pleasure's all mine." He said, "I'll take the gear of those soldiers you lost and make sure that it gets to their families." He added.

"That's alright sir, I'll have Iridescent Arrow do it, he was pretty close with those soldiers." I replied then looked in the direction of the castle and someone I wanted, desperately, to see again. "Well I will continue on my way. 'Til the next time we meet general." I said as I extended my hand in a farewell shake.

"Aye lad, 'til next time." He said as he shook my hand, and then I turned around and walked away. I lengthened my strides so that I might get to the castle before Luna raised the moon.

POV Princess Luna

Meanwhile in Castle Everfree

While Dhar'Sii was on his way back I had a nightmare. I did not think it possible for a princess of the night to have nightmares but yet here I was, having an extremely horrid one.

It started off with me falling into a river of… blood… in which I had a hard time getting to the surface. I must have swallowed a dozen buckets of blood before I had managed to reach the surface. Once I reached it, a solid surface magically appeared beneath my feet, though it was rather slippery and I did not want to think about what it was.

I looked around me and saw land in the distance. It looked like it was a forest with oddly shaped trees and really strange looking creatures flying above it. Some of them looked to be carrying objects. I trudged through the river to get to the bank, though when I got there, I wished that I hadn't of come to the bank in the first place.

The trees were several hundred feet tall and had thousands of twisted barbs sticking out of their trunks and limbs. Impaled on these barbs were hundreds of ponies per tree. All of them were still alive and were half digested too. As I looked at these helpless victims I watched one of the winged creatures swoop down and impaled another pony that it had been carrying on the barbs and then start eating her. I threw up and was disgusted to see that I had thrown up a partially eaten pony leg. When I saw that I grew extremely scared and I started running as I noticed the looks of fear that the impaled ponies had been giving me ever since I climbed out of the river.

I moved really slow as the blood had dried and made it difficult to move my limbs much, especially my wings. As I ran the scenery started to change, slowly transforming itself into the familiar walls of the Castle Everfree throne room.

In it I noticed three figures; two of them were blurry so it was hard to make their features out and they were fighting each other it seemed. The third figure freaked me out. It looked like me, but like some pony had taken my body and shaped it into a taller, darker, and more sinister looking me, with fangs too.

The bigger of the two blurs appeared to be beating its smaller, more agile opponent. It would taunt the smaller one and would purposely make clumsy mistakes to give the smaller one hope. I watched for a few minutes, wondering what was going on when the third figure looked in my direction.

"Tis but a mere glimpse of what is to come in the near future princess." It replied in response to my unspoken question. Its voice was that of the demon that had been haunting me. It made a snapping noise and then the whole scene stopped. It looked at me again, then it began to explain the scene.

"The form that you see me wearing is actually you. You will go and make an eternal night, though, you might not be conscious of what she is doing. And here you have two who are fighting over you. One to bring back the light, and one to preserve the darkness." It said as it walked around the scene.

"Who is she?" I asked, intrigued as to what it meant by that. It laughed, then walked up next to me.

"You will find out who she is when she presents herself to you princess." It said, making the snapping noise again to continue the fight.

The smaller fighter brought its weapon down on the back of bigger one's knee, bringing it to the ground. It roared and brought its weapon up across the smaller's chest; sending it flying. It landed some twenty feet away and tried to get up but its wound was to great.

The bigger one raised its weapon above its head and prepared to give the killing blow. Time slowed down, and the figures became visible. The big one was a scarred minotaur while the small one was Dhar'Sii. I gasped in alarm when I realized this, the demon next to me only laughed. Dhar'Sii looked up at the oncoming axe and closed his eyes saying, "I have failed you Luna." as the axe came in for the coup de grace.

"Dhar'Sii!" I screamed as I snapped awake in my bed. I was sweating and breathing heavily from what I had seen.

"Your Highness, is thou alright?" A guard asked as he poked his head in the door. I nodded to him then got up as I realized that I had two hours before I needed to raise the moon. After he closed the door I walked to my bathroom to take a shower. Twenty minutes later I stepped out of it, I had lost track of time as I had been brooding over my dream.

I stepped into my room, toweling myself dry, and then froze. There, lying on my bed was Dhar'Sii. He had obviously been waiting for me but had fallen asleep. I crawled up beside him and nuzzled him in the chest. He stirred awake then stroked my mane as he found me next to him.

"Evening Princess. You enjoy your freedom from me?" he asked as he rolled towards me.

"No! Every minute that thou was gone was agony for us." I replied then kissed him. "I missed you." I replied softly when he pulled away for a second.

"And I missed you as well, Luna." He said, causing a chill to go down my spine at his use of my name without formalities. I smiled at him and he smiled back, and then he leaned down to kiss me again though it was a more passionate kiss. We lay there for a while, kissing each other and cuddling each other until Dhar'Sii made an amused noise and pulled away.

"If I recall correctly Luna, now is about the time that you have to go and raise the moon. Correct?" He said as he pointed outside. My eyes grew wide as I realized that I was indeed late to do that. I pushed past him and rushed out of my room to raise the moon; Dhar'Sii's laughter following me the whole way.

POV Dhar'Sii

I sighed as Luna rushed out of the room. It had felt amazing to hold her undisturbed as long as I had. I thought about returning to my room but decided that I should stay for the night. Besides Luna had seemed disturbed somewhat, and it wasn't because I had arrived unannounced. I also did not want to run into Celestia and explain every detail about what had happened with the dragon.

I was deep into my thoughts and did not notice the door open until I felt an extremely hostile stare on the back of my neck. I turned around and looked up and jumped when I saw Luna glaring at me. She leaped at me and pinned me to the bed.

"Thou did what they did on purpose, did they not?" Luna demanded of me in a stern voice, though I did detect a trace of playfulness in it. I smiled and put on my best guilty expression.

"What you talking about woman? I didn't do anything." I replied in an overly defensive voice, still smiling at her and everything.

"Oh, you naughty creature." She said in a sultry voice as she turned on her bedroom eyes and smiled a seductive smile. I smiled back as I liked where this was going.

"Yes I am." I replied, "Now come and find out just how naughty I can be." I added as I pulled her into a kiss. She giggled enthusiastically, and that sent us off on one wild night.

POV Third Person

Far away in the frozen wastes north of the Equestrian border, the Minotaur stood in a cave, talking with two dark entities.

"That lizard is going to be an issue, Mistress." It said to the slimmer of the two entities.

"Do not worry about him, I will take care of him for you, Minotaur." the bigger one said, he was Hermaeus Mora.

"Why did you bring him here in the first place?" The slimmer one said its voice definitively female. She was the essence of Nightmare Moon.

"Because our Minotaur here needs an opponent to fight." Hermaeus replied, gesturing with one portion of his mass at the Minotaur.

"That lizard managed to take on an entire army of ogres on its own." The Minotaur said as it slammed its axe into the ice of the cave.

"Calm thyself my precious beast," Nightmare Moon said, "You will be able to handle it on your own, and when I come to power you will have an army that will be larger than that pathetic mass of ogres you put together." She added as she walked behind the Minotaur and stroked its mane as it began to calm down.

"And to think, once I come to power I will have a body that you can prove your love to me with." She said as she noticed that its thoughts were going a different direction than calm or angry.

The Minotaur grunted, it was true that it loved Nightmare Moon but its true love was the heat of combat and it would get it from its fight with the lizard. Soon…. It thought to itself, soon I shall drink that lizard's blood.

**Author's Note: Hey guys, what did you think? I had a little difficult with this one as I tried to pull off a romance thing but hey what can I say. I also had to split my time between this and another fanfic that I am trying to start. Well anyways hope you enjoyed it and go ahead and tell me what you think about the story so far and what you think I should try and do differently, ok. I could use the feedback. Cause right now I feel like I am talking to myself right now. Though odds are I probably am.**


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